Monster Hunter Bloodlines - eARC by Larry Correia (read a book .txt) 📕

Strangely enough, I actually had a lot of prior experience at evading monsters on foot through the wilderness. And Georgia was much nicer than the Nightmare Realm. I didn’t know how the Drekavac had found her. I didn’t know if it could track us. Maybe we could shake it. Maybe not. But we had to try. I set out, double time.

Sonya grabbed the sawed-off and followed.

I waded down the stream. I didn’t know if his hell hounds had noses like normal dogs, but if they did, maybe this would throw them off our scent. Once we were on the other shore, we ran along the stream’s edge for about a quarter mile. I knew we needed to turn off. This path was too obvious. The temperature had returned to the normal, muggy, summer heat. I could no longer see the fog. However, losing that pale illumination meant that I couldn’t see shit. I stopped to get my bearings.

“This would be a lot easier if you hadn’t wrecked your truck,” Sonya whispered.

“What’s your excuse? He caught you when you were on a bullet bike.”

“I didn’t know he could shoot fireballs.”

The darkness made it really difficult to move, and the woods here were thick. I had multiple flashlights but turning one on would make us a huge target. I also had my night vision goggles in the bag, but I only had the one pair. “Can you see in the dark?”

“Why would you think I could see in the dark?”

“That seems like a reasonable thing for a half-human shapeshifter to be able to do. If you’ve got other abilities, now isn’t the time to be coy about them.”

“Sorry. I didn’t inherit that gene. I can’t see any better than a regular human.”

“I’ve got night vision goggles, so stick close and follow me.” I reached into the bag and found one of my rechargeable Surefires and handed it to her. “Take this. But don’t turn it on unless you absolutely have to if we get separated.” Then I gave her the last of the loose shotgun shells from my pocket. “You should be able to figure that one out.”

I fished out my PVS-14 night vision setup and strapped it around my head. I much preferred using this mounted to my helmet, because worn on my head I had to cinch it brain-squeezingly tight to keep it from flopping around. Still, it beat tripping and impaling myself on a sharp branch. I turned the goggles on and the murky woods became perfectly visible in pixilated green. No matter how many times I used these things, that moment was always James Bond super cool. “Let’s go.”

Once we got away from the stream and beneath the trees, there was zero light, but I was fine. It takes a while to get used to walking with such a narrow view that you can’t really see your feet, but I had a lot of practice. Sonya kept one hand on the drag strap on the back of my vest. She had to be totally blind right now.

We kept moving, but there was no sign of the Drekavac. Maybe rear-ending the truck had actually killed it once and for all. That would be nice. Which meant it was unlikely. Monster Hunters never expect nice things to happen to us. If you expect the worst, you’re often pleasantly surprised when some things don’t suck. With no sign of our pursuer, I crouched next to a tree, to watch and listen.

“What’s going on?” Sonya whispered.

“Shhh.”

That warning lasted about twenty seconds, before she went, “What do you see?”

“I don’t see anything. I’m trying to listen to the woods.”

“What do you hear?”

“You. Because you won’t shut up.”

“Oh.” She was really good in her element, but Sonya wasn’t striking me as the outdoorsy type. I glanced back at her. Everybody looks unnatural in night vision, but the difference was plain. Ditching us through the urban crowds earlier, she had been on top of the world. Out here, squatting in the dark, being hunted by a scary unkillable monster, she was a bundle of nerves. And she kept turning her head, waiting for something to pop out and kill her.

I couldn’t see the Drekavac’s glow or its fog, but the woods were too still. A night like this there should have been a lot more noises. Warm summer night in a Southern forest, there’s always insects chirping and frogs croaking and general animal noises. Except it was eerie silent. The effect wasn’t as pronounced as when the Drekavac had arrived at the bar, but I could still sense it. That thing was out there, searching.

Since it was hot again, maybe that meant the supernatural interference was gone. But when I got out my phone to check, there was still no signal. Either the monster was still close, or his weird energy field had permanently fried my phone. There was a GPS tracker on the truck and on my armor. I didn’t know if those would still be working, but if they were, my friends would be coming after us.

“Why are you helping me?”

I sighed. “It’s my job.”

“I’m not paying you.”

“Holy shit, kid, how mercenary do you think we are?”

“Don’t act like you’re not in this for the money. I know how Hunters work. I know what I’ve got. You want the Ward. You’ll have to outbid the Church boys. They’re up to two million. Do I hear three?”

“What’s your I didn’t leave you to get chopped up by a Drekavac discount?”

But then Sonya twitched and looked straight up. She’d seen something. I glanced up to see what had caught her attention. The bird was super bright on night vision, far too bright to be natural. And sure enough, when I flipped up the goggles out of the way, I could see that was because the bird was glowing with that same ghostly light as the fog.

The Drekavac didn’t just have hunting dogs and a mutant horse—he had a falcon.

“Don’t